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Volcanoes in Iceland Mapped Due to Eruption Risk

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Volcanoes in Iceland Mapped Due to Eruption Risk

The Ministry of the Interior has ordered the mapping of volcanoes to be used for prioritizing in a risk assessment of eruptions in Iceland.

Archive photo of an eruption in Vatnajökull. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police’s Civil Protection Department has also consulted volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson due to his prediction of a possible volcanic eruption above Hafnarfjörður in the capital region, ruv.is reports.

Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson revealed this when asked about the matter by two MPs, Ólína Þorvarðardóttir of the Social Democrats and Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir of the Independence Party, in parliament earlier this month.

Ögmundur responded that the volcanoes that are thought to pose the most danger will be evaluated first and that the first stage of the project is set to be completed in three years. However, completing the entire project might take as long as 20 years.

Ögmundur also stated that the gravest risk for Reykjavík and the vicinity is posed by the volcanic region on Reykjanes peninsula.

There isn’t any special emergency plan for an eruption on Reykjanes, he added, but a general emergency plan is at hand and strategies, methods and checklists are regularly reviewed.

Click here to read more about Haraldur’s comments on a possible eruption in the Reykjavík area and here to read an article by him in Iceland Review about the subject.